At its most basic, a risk assessment looks at the potential level of risk your driver poses to other road users. The risk assessment will assess if the driver has the skills and ability to drive safely. For example, do they follow the highway code, can they deal safely with other road users, turn left and right, use roundabouts, overtake safely, can they monitor and prioritise hazards effectively, do they speed and so on. A risk assessment will also consider behavioural factors such as driver aggression, how they react to other road users, deal with conflict, driver excitement and risk taking, managing fatigue, use of mobile phones, distractions and so on.

A driving assessment considers if a driver is safe to continue driving, would benefit from further training or vehicle adaptations. For example, does the driver have quick enough reactions, is their vision to the required standard, can they co-ordinate controls, have they got acceptable spacial awareness, are they able to press a foot brake pedal with enough force to operate the brake or can they turn a steering wheel briskly enough to steer away from danger or would they benefit from hand controls or lighter steering.